Create Jira issues from Cleft notes

Automatically turn Cleft voice notes and checkboxes into tracked Jira issues for engineering teams

Transform your team’s voice-captured ideas and feedback into properly tracked engineering issues in Jira. Perfect for developers, engineering managers, and product teams who want to eliminate manual data entry.

✅ Public Template — Ready to use now with Cleft Plus

Install Template

Create Jira issues from Cleft notes

One-click installation. No Jira experience needed. Takes 2 minutes to set up.

What It Does

Automatically create Jira issues from Cleft notes when you capture action items as checkboxes. Perfect for converting customer feedback, feature requests, bug reports, and meeting notes directly into your engineering workflow without manual transcription.

How It Works

This template follows a simple 7-step automation pattern:

1. Capture in Cleft

   Create a voice note or text note in Cleft with your ideas, feedback, or action items

2. Add Checkboxes

   Format action items as checkboxes:

   - [ ] Implement dark mode toggle
   - [ ] Fix login button styling
   - [ ] Add keyboard shortcuts
   

3. Tag with 'tasks'

   Add the tasks tag to your note. This is your human review checkpoint—review the checkboxes before issues are created in Jira.

4. Note Saved

   When you save the note, the automation triggers immediately

5. Extract Checkboxes

   Python code automatically extracts all unchecked checkboxes from your note

6. Create for Each Item

   The system loops through each checkbox and creates a separate Jira issue

7. Issues Appear in Jira

   Each checkbox becomes a new Jira issue in your project, ready for the team

Setup Requirements

Before installing, make sure you have:

• ✅ Cleft Plus subscription (required)
• ✅ Jira Cloud account with project access
• ✅ Zapier account (free tier works)
• ✅ Permission to create issues in your Jira project

Installation Steps

1. Click the Install Template button above (opens Zapier)
2. Sign in with your Cleft account (or create one)
3. Select your Jira workspace and target project
4. Review the field mapping:
   • Summary: Checkbox text
   • Project: Your selected project
   • Issue Type: Task or Bug (customizable)
5. Turn on the Zap and you’re done!

Important: When creating a note, add the tasks tag to trigger automation. This gives you a chance to review items before they sync to Jira as issues.

Use Cases

1. Customer Interview → Feature Backlog

Voice record a customer interview in Cleft, noting feature requests as checkboxes. Within seconds, each request becomes a backlog item in Jira that engineering can estimate and schedule.

Time saved: 30 minutes per interview (eliminates typing)

2. Product Feedback Session → Sprint Planning

During a weekly product review, capture feedback in Cleft with checkboxes for action items. Your team gets 5-10 new Jira issues automatically, ready for the next sprint planning session.

Time saved: 40 minutes per session (no manual issue creation)

3. Support Escalations → Engineering Queue

Support team voice-logs critical bugs directly in Cleft with reproducible steps as checkboxes. Engineering sees the issues in Jira immediately, prioritized and ready to investigate.

Time saved: 20 minutes per batch (eliminating Jira form filling)

Customization

Change Trigger to All Notes

By default, only notes tagged with tasks will trigger automation (your human review checkpoint). To trigger from every note instead:

1. Open the Zap in Zapier
2. Edit the trigger step
3. Remove the “tags contains tasks” filter
4. Save and turn on

Now every note with checkboxes will auto-sync to Jira, with no review step.

Customize Issue Fields

By default, checkboxes become issue summaries. You can customize:

• Project: Change which Jira project receives issues
• Issue Type: Use Bug, Task, Story, or Epic
• Labels: Auto-tag all issues (e.g., “from-cleft”, “voice-capture”)
• Assignee: Auto-assign to team members
• Priority: Set default priority for all issues

To customize, open the Zap in Zapier and edit the “Create Jira Issue” step.

Add Filters for Specific Notes

Want only certain notes to create issues? Add a filter step:

1. In Zapier, add a Filter between “Note Created” and “Extract Checkboxes”
2. Filter by note title, content, or tags
3. Only notes matching your criteria will create Jira issues

Example: Only process notes tagged with “bugs” or containing “critical”

Link Issues Back to Cleft

Include your note’s link in the Jira issue description so engineers can see the full context:

1. Edit the “Create Issue” step in Zapier
2. In the Description field, add:
   Source note: [Link to Cleft note]
   

3. This gives your team full context without context-switching

Checkbox Format Guide

For Jira to create issues, use this exact format in Cleft:

- [ ] Issue title here
- [ ] Another issue to track
- [ ] And one more

Important:

• Start each line with a dash and space: -
• Include empty brackets: [ ] (not [x])
• Each checkbox becomes a separate Jira issue
• Completed checkboxes ([x]) are skipped

Troubleshooting

No issues are being created

Check these items:

1. Zap is ON: Open Zapier and verify the Zap toggle is ON (blue)
2. Checkbox format: Confirm you used - [ ] text (with space after dash)
3. Jira connection: Verify Jira is properly connected to your Zapier account
4. Project permissions: Ensure your Jira account can create issues in that project
5. Zap runs: Check Zapier’s “Runs” tab to see if the automation even triggered

Wrong project is receiving issues

1. Open the Zapier Zap editor
2. Go to the “Create Jira Issue” step
3. Check the Project field—make sure it’s set to the correct project
4. Save and test again

Issues have blank titles

This means your checkboxes don’t match the expected format. Make sure each line:

• Starts with - (dash and space)
• Has [ ] (empty brackets)
• Has text after the brackets

Correct: - [ ] Fix button styling Wrong: - [ ] (empty), - [ ] (just spaces), [ ] Fix button (missing dash)

Zap turned off unexpectedly

Zapier may pause your Zap if it encounters repeated errors. Common causes:

• Cleft account disconnected
• Jira project permissions changed
• Jira API limit exceeded

Fix: Reconnect your accounts in Zapier and turn the Zap back on.

Creating too many issues

If every note is creating issues and you only want certain notes:

1. Add a Filter step in Zapier (between trigger and code step)
2. Filter by note title, tags, or content
3. Only matching notes will create issues

Example: Only process notes with title containing “bugs”

Advanced Tips

Batch Processing

You can create many issues at once! Add 10+ checkboxes to a single note, and each will become a separate Jira issue. Useful for processing meeting notes or feedback sessions with multiple action items.

Template Details

• Template ID: 255679510
• Status: ✅ Public (live and ready)
• Trigger Type: Note Created (immediate)
• Target Platform: Jira Cloud
• Prerequisites: Cleft Plus, Jira account, Zapier account
• Setup Time: ~2 minutes
• Annual Time Savings: ~15-20 hours (depending on volume)

Perfect For

• 👨‍💻 Engineering teams capturing bugs and feature requests
• 📋 Product managers feeding customer feedback into backlog
• 🎯 Team leads organizing action items from meetings
• 🔧 DevOps teams logging infrastructure tasks and improvements

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Need Help?

• 📖 General Zapier Help: Visit Zapier’s support docs
• 🔧 Jira Questions: Check Jira’s documentation
• 💬 Cleft Support: Contact our support team
• 🐛 Report an Issue: File a bug report

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Ready to turn voice notes into tracked issues? Install the Jira template now →